Residents of Kanasinkatte village in Bhadravati taluk have put up a banner asking political party workers not to enter the village for campaigning. , photo credit: GT Satish
Residents of Kanasinkatte (literally meaning storehouse of dreams), a village with about 1,200 voters in Bhadravati taluk of Shivamogga district, have put up a banner at the entrance, asking political leaders not to enter the village. They have boycotted the assembly polls citing lack of basic amenities ranging from public transport and mobile connectivity to graveyards.
This village is about five kilometers away from Hole Honnur, a town under the Shivamogga Rural Assembly Constituency and it is not easy to reach this village. In fact, school children have to walk a distance of five km to reach their schools, as there is no bus service to Kanasinakatte. “Every day, more than 150 students, who are in high schools and colleges, walk to Hole Honnur. For the last four-five years, we have been appealing for bus service. But no one has responded,” Srinivas said , who represents the village in the Sanya Kodamggi gram panchayat.
During the COVID-19 lockdown, students in the village were finding it difficult to attend online classes due to poor network connectivity. “We got mobile phones for our children, but they could hardly attend classes. They climbed the hills in search of a vantage point in the hope of getting a signal. The problem has not been resolved even now,” said Nagaraj, a resident of the village.
The villagers have appealed to the MLA, Lok Sabha member and officials several times. “For years, we had two acres of land to bury the dead. However, recently, the Panchayat authorities issued Account (Title of Title) Land in the name of a person, preventing us from entering the place. Now, we don’t even have a cremation ground,” lamented village panchayat member Karisvaiya.
The villagers took a united decision to boycott the election to highlight their problems. He also informed the Deputy Commissioner about his decision through a letter. Officials of the Bhadrawati taluk administration held a meeting with the villagers and tried to persuade them to withdraw their decision. We will not go back on our decision. There is no point in voting as no one is coming forward to resolve our issues,” said Malleshappa, a resident.